What is sudden cardiac arrest?
Sudden cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness.
The condition usually results from an electrical disturbance in your heart that disrupts its pumping action, stopping blood flow to your body.
Sudden cardiac arrest differs from a heart attack, when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked. However, a heart attack can sometimes trigger an electrical disturbance that leads to sudden cardiac arrest.
If not treated immediately, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to death. With fast, appropriate medical care, survival is possible. Giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation can improve the chances of survival until emergency workers arrive.
Symptoms
Sudden cardiac arrest signs and symptoms are immediate and drastic and include:
- Sudden collapse
- No pulse
- No breathing
- Loss of consciousness
Usually, in most clinical cases, sudden cardiac arrest develops completely suddenly and does not show any warning signs in the body.
Sometimes other signs and symptoms occur before sudden cardiac arrest. These might include:
- Chest discomfort
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Palpitations
Causes
A problem in your heart rhythm (arrhythmia) — the result of a problem with your heart's electrical system — is the usual cause of sudden cardiac arrest.
The heart's electrical system controls the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat. If something goes wrong, your heart can beat too fast, too slowly or irregularly (arrhythmia).
Often these arrhythmias are brief and harmless, but some types can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
Sudden cardiac arrest can happen in people who have no known heart disease. However, a life-threatening arrhythmia usually develops in a person with a pre-existing, possibly undiagnosed heart condition.
Conditions include:
- Coronary artery disease.
- Heart attack.
- Enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy).
- Valvular heart disease.
- Congenital heart disease.
- Electrical problems in the heart.
Because sudden cardiac arrest is so often linked with coronary artery disease, the same factors that put you at risk of coronary artery disease can also put you at risk of sudden cardiac arrest. These include:
The risk factors of sudden cardiac arrest include: A family history of coronary artery disease, smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, a sedentary lifestyle, nutritional imbalance, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease and etc.
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-cardiac-arrest/symptoms-causes/syc-20350634
